Nine Lives

As with any anthology film, some segments are better than others simply because of the jiggling around of different actors styles and chemistries (the Wright Penn/Isaacs sequence is probably the highlight, but Close and Fanning put the perfect cherry on an understated heartbreaker of a finale). The reusing of actors/characters in different stories is more of a bewildering conceit than adding anything significant to the drama, though it does give Spacek an opportunity to play two distinct sides of the same character. While the “black-out” elliptical endings of each story means the drama is more concentrated and contained, it does have a tendency to leave some stories almost gasping for air mid-sentence (especially the Hamilton sequence and Hunter sequence). There’s so much fine talent on display that the film almost carries itself on the personalities alone, though I’m not sure it quite sits as a solid drama overall.